Files used

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• get_parse.shtml
• get_parse.svg
• get_parse_rect.xml
• x_austria_relief.png

Technical Details

A script (described below) within the SVG imports an external file, parses it and adds it to the chosen layer. The scripts need to be within the SVG file as the necessary functions require the internal Adobe scripting engine.

The external file

The file we add to the graphic needs to be some SVG code in order to get rendered properly. It can be a full SVG file, but note that you have to deal with viewboxes then. The file we add is a truncated SVG file, but still some XML, so we called it get_parse_rect.xml. It holds nothing more than this code:

<rect x="-2461" y="555" width="4625" height="800"
              fill="red" fill-opacity=".7" stroke="yellow" 
              stroke-width="77" stroke-opacity="1"/>

The file getting code

The functions use Adobe viewer internal mechanisms, so the function needs to be within the embedded SVG file. A simple trick helps us to call this function from the outside HTML. We create reference to the script at top (hoping that nobody embeds this page into a frameset).

top.AddMe = addMe;

That way the function defined within the SVG can be called as addMe(), from HTML it can be called as AddMe(). Note the difference in naming (upper and lower case "A"), without that some browsers (MSIE) get confused. But you can use any name you like here.

When choosing a layer in the pulldown menu AddMe(LAYER_NAME) gets called, that is identical to addMe(LAYER_NAME) from within the SVG. Let's have a look at the function itself:

function addMe(fileName,where) {
  getURL(fileName, fileLoaded);
  function fileLoaded(data) {
    var string = '';
    if(data.success) {
      string = data.content;
    } else {
      return;
    }
    var node = parseXML(string, document);
    document.getElementById(where).appendChild(node);
  }
}

getURL() and parseXML() are predefined functions form the Adobe viewer scripting engine. getURL() requires a callback method to be passed as a parameter. The callback method is passed to an object (here data), which gives some information on the status of the request and the data received (here data.success [true/false] and data.content [the things we need]).

This data.content is stored as a string and passed to parseXML(). The parsing needs to be done somewhere, easiest way: within the document. At this time node holds information similar to the one when you create SVG elements with scripting. Then the string needs to be attached, here at the end of the group or layer chosen from the pulldown menu.

Netscape Users

Note: in order to have this script running on Netscape4.x, it needs some slight modifications:

var whereNN;

function addMe(fileName,where) {
  whereNN = where;

  getURL(fileName, fileLoaded);
  function fileLoaded(data) {
    var string = '';
    if(data.success) {
      string = data.content;
    } else {
      return;
    }
    var node = parseXML(string, document);
    document.getElementById(whereNN).appendChild(node);
   }
}

For some reason the where variable is not remembered by the inner function so we pass it to a global variable called whereNN.

Loading XML

You may also add XML directly to the SVG document with this function

top.AddXML = addXML; 

function addXML(xml2parse,where){
  document.getElementById(where).
               appendChild(parseXML(xml2parse,document));
}

You can call it here with this link, a green rectangle should be added to the map. the function call looks like that:

AddXML('<rect x=\'-2261\' y=\'755\' width=\'4625\' height=\'800\' 
          fill=\'red\' fill-opacity=\'.7\' stroke=\'yellow\' 
          stroke-width=\'77\' stroke-opacity=\'1\'/>','schrift');

Credits

This page borrows ideas from following pages. Please check also those for more information about getURL/parseXML. Note that there is also a postURL method to get information sent back to the server.

• AdobeSVGViewer Extension on SVG Wiki
• Dynamically updating SVG based on serverside information from Jim Ley
• SVG mit externen Datenquellen verbinden (german) from Thomas Meinike
• SVG Tips and Tricks: Adobe's SVG Viewer by Antoine Quint on XML.com